montipora help

[jbomar3771]

I noticed in the last couple of weeks my green montipora stopped growing. I got it about 3 months ago and it was growing great. It has grown onto the rock good and is capping out. It had a nice white edge to it but now that edge is not so white which tells me it stopped growing. Also my coralline algae has stopped and is flaking away off the glass. This is what i have changed recently. My tank was too clean so i turned off my gfo and carbon. Was feeding heavily to raise nitrates because phosphates and nitrates were 0 and my sps were getting pale. Finally got phosphates up to 0.02 and nitrates at 1. They stayed that way for a few weeks and colors came back nicely. Tested yesterday and both undetectable again. Everything looks good. My sps are growing good. The other thing i changed is i turned my leds up to 70 on the blues from 65. And i added 2 t5 supplement bulbs and only run for 2 hours a day. I have 3 sol blues. This is a 72gal bowfront with 10gal sump
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Ph 8.2
Alk 8.6
Sg 1.025
Mag. 1350
Temp 79
Calcium 450

 

[nuvuku]

I think you said it yourself:

" Finally got phosphates up to 0.02 and nitrates at 1. They stayed that way for a few weeks and colors came back nicely. Tested yesterday and both undetectable again."

Now Im all for a clean tank but what I got from the jist of what your saying is that your tank was too clean (and not getting good growth) and so you made the water "dirtier" and then you have growth. I may have misunderstood though so please let me know. I have heard of instances where someones tank was uber clean and they had pale sps and sickly looking corals which is why what your saying makes sense. Btw how are you getting your water THAT clean??

 

[jbomar3771]

Actually when i raised the phosphate and nitrates is when it stopped growing. I added the lights at the same time. When i had undetectable phosphates and nitrates everything grew great just bad color